Knight, whose real name is Marion, was taken into custody at 12:50 a.m. and was released from Los Angeles city jail three hours later after posting $20,000 bond, according to prison records.

Los Angeles police spokesman Drake Madison said he did not know why Knight was stopped or why there was a warrant for his arrest.

Knight, 48, is considered one of the driving forces behind the emergence of hip-hop as a mainstream music genre. Along with rapper-producer Dr. Dre in 1991, he founded Death Row Records, which helped launch the careers of Snoop Dogg and Tupac Shakur, among others.

Knight has had several legal problems, most notably serving five years for a parole violation in the 1990s.